Tag: El Mac

So this is my new favorite mural in town because it’s just so…Phoenix! The murals have changed and increased so much recently that I no longer even try to keep up with them. But I like to show you every now and then how colorful the streets of Phoenix are. This is by Lalo Cota, JB Snyder, Angel Diaz, Pablo Luna, and Colton Brock. Much as I love this above mural, it was painted over another one of my favorite murals (below), by Lalo Cota:

And this was what was on it most recently, more luchadores (partially Lalo):

Another new mural there, by Angel Diaz:

And previously, on the same wall, also by Angel Diaz:

And another time, same wall:

And another wall (partially Lalo):

This wall, above, is special, in that in 2011, El Mac (Miles Mac), who is an internationally renowned artist and muralist now, came back to Phoenix, where he got his start, and painted this part of the wall:

Out of respect for him, this part of the wall doesn’t get over-painted although the rest of it changes now and then:

And here’s a bonus one, down the street a little ways:

I do hope that first one gets made into t-shirts, postcards, magazine covers, etc. and brings a lot of cashola to the artists. I’ll buy one.

Well, the murals have been here all along, thriving and growing in numbers. I just didn’t get out to take photos of them for awhile due to the holidays, changes at work, life. Now I’ve lost track of where all the new ones are. Although I’ve tried to keep up through Facebook, it’s going to take some doing to catch up on them all.

But Calle 16, which is quite close to our house, was an easy way to jump back in and there have been a lot of additions and changes there. Check out this previous post of mine from almost a year ago to see how some of the murals have changed since then.

The El Mac portion remains unchanged while Lalo Cota changed his part of it, on the above wall.

This particular wall is all new work that was done in December 2012 and January 2013 by several artists.

This is along the back and side of Barrio Cafe. The owner, Chef Silvana, was the impetus for the whole Calle 16 project several years ago.

This wall is also shown in the previous post mentioned above, as it appeared then. So you can see that there have been some overpaintings and changes while other walls remain the same.

If you’re ever in Phoenix, check out our alleys for lots of colorful surprises.

Luster Kaboom, that is, aka David Quan. He is a comic book artist from Phoenix who has now moved back to New York, where he went to art school, in the hopes of fulfilling his dream of making comics. You can read more about him here.

I just found this yesterday. I heard about it a long time ago but was not aware it still existed. This is Nuestra Señora del Desierto by the now internationally famous artist, El Mac (Miles MacGregor), who started his career as a graffiti/street artist in Phoenix. He now is based in L.A. and travels all over the world doing commissioned work. This was done in 2006.

It’s on the steel security door of a tattoo shop so when the shop is open, the mural isn’t visible. Luckily, for me, they were closed on the Fourth of July. Almost 2 years ago, I wrote about El Mac’s Phoenix Goddess, which is just across the street from here on the back of the historic Laird Apartments (these are not the sorts of apartments typical of Phoenix, aren’t they pretty?):

Maybe you remember her? She’s still there, we checked her out but this photo is from almost 2 years ago. She’s not in a location where you would likely just come across her, you have to be looking.

It’s a huge one and the background of the mural matches the actual scenery in this alley.

Here’s a few more of the Phoenix El Macs that I have posted in the past.

This was a collaboration between El Mac and Kofie, on Pravus Gallery on Roosevelt Row.

This one (above), sadly, no longer exists. A few months ago, the new owners of the building~not well-liked anyway~overpainted it, to a huge uproar in the local arts community. As the article linked above on David Quan states:

“Miles MacGregor, or El Mac, is a local celebrity in the street art world; he and his work have traveled internationally and the few times he’s thrown a mural up on a wall in Phoenix (another one of his murals is on the side of Pravus gallery on Roosevelt Row), it’s understood by the arts community that it’ll stay, untouched, for as long as possible. ”

In fact, I’ve been contacted before for permission to use the above photo (granted, of course) since the mural’s sad demise.

This one (below) is, I think, the most recent one El Mac has done in Phoenix, in December, 2011, on Calle 16.

So, I was back at the huge mural project, Calle 16, the other day. I have written about it several times (1, 2, 3). Lots of new stuff there now. Calle 16 is not technically in the area referred to as “Downtown Phoenix,” where the majority of the other murals I have photographed are located. However, it’s only a couple miles away and many of the same muralists are active in both areas.

This is the building right next to the one below; you can see it on the left side of the above photo.

You can see that the building next to this now has the mural below as well as one on the side of the building.

This is actually the back of a new gallery called Por Vida, owned by muralists/artists Lalo Cota, Pablo Luna, and Thomas Breeze Marcus. I most recently wrote about Lalo here and I have mentioned all of them in the past. This is Angel Diaz’s work below.

You can see Lalo’s unmistakable style here.

Around the corner of the building, once again, Lalo is evident but this wall was also painted by El Mac, Kaper, and Fyce. El Mac is from Phoenix but has now become an international muralist/artist and I’ve written about him many times, too, including here.

This is the part done by El Mac last December when he was visiting Phoenix. He is now based in L.A., but travels all over the world doing commissioned art.

And here is the front of the building where the entrance to Por Vida is.

Just about a block south of this area, also on 16th Street (Calle 16), another large mural was just recently painted and I’ll show you some photos of it in a few days. Plus, there have been several new murals done in downtown Phoenix in just the last couple of weeks so I will probably get some shots of those this coming weekend.

Update: This post was Freshly Pressed on 3.28.12. Thank you, WordPress! This was my second FP. The first one is here.